ZOO TWO: Thomas Haden Church and Matt Damon film “We Bought a Zoo,” a film about a widower who buys a rundown zoo. Photo: Splash News

The red carpet at the Kodak Theatre hasn’t even been rolled up, and Tinseltown is already buzzing about next year’s Oscar race.

Will Meryl Streep, who holds the record with 16 nominations, win her first Best Actress since 1983 for playing former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher in the biopic “The Iron Lady”?

Is director Terrence Malick’s super-secret, decades-spanning family drama “The Tree of Life” with Brad Pitt and Sean Penn going to be the masterpiece everyone is hoping for? Or an arty dud like his last, “The New World”?

Will George Clooney — who whiffed with “The American” last year — end up with a nomination or two for his promising-sounding new movies, one of which he directed?

Welcome to Hollywood’s version of fantasy baseball, where insiders try to dope out the Oscar prospects of films that in most cases haven’t been completed and often don’t have firm release dates.

The long-delayed “The Tree of Life,” which appeared on my morning line Oscar list for the last two years, is finally set for a Memorial Day weekend opening.

This is not a sport for the faint of heart. While my list last year included five of the 10 eventual Best Picture nominees — “The Social Network, “Black Swan,” “The Fighter,” “Toy Story 3” and “Inception” — most of the others, notably “The King’s Speech,” weren’t on anybody’s radar at this point.

Movies that sounded great on paper a year ago — based on the talent involved and/or literary pedigree — but pulled up lame in the Oscar derby included “Hereafter,” “Somewhere,” “Love and Other Drugs,” “Eat Pray Love,” “The Tempest” and “Secretariat.”

“The Ides of March” — George Clooney, who directed the Oscar-nominated “Good Night, and Good Luck,” is behind the camera again for this dramedy centering on an idealistic campaign worker (Ryan Gosling) for a presidential candidate (Clooney). With Oscar winners Marisa Tomei and Philip Seymour Hoffman

“The Descendants” — George Clooney, again, stars as a land baron trying to reconnect with his two daughters after his wife suffers from a boating accident in director Alexander Payne’s first film since “Sideways.”

“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” — David Fincher directs an English-language remake of the Swedish sensation, the first of a prospective trilogy starring Rooney Mara, his “it girl” from “The Social Network” as a punk hacker who assists a journalist (Daniel Craig) on the trail of a long-missing woman.

“The Adventures of Tintin:Secret of the Unicorn” — Steven Spielberg’s first animated feature, employing motion capture, is going up against sequels to Pixar’s “Cars” and the film that beat it for the animation Oscar in 2007, “Happy Feet.” “The War Horse” — Spielberg’s second December release is a live-action tale of a young man who follows his beloved horse to the trenches of World War I.